Despite record January rainfall, an above-average snowpack and rising reservoirs, the state water board stuck to its conservation guns Tuesday, approving an eight-month extension of the existing drought-related emergency regulations with minor adjustments.

The State Water Resources Control Board sent a message to California urban water users: A few months of El Niño-fueled storms do not a drought-buster make. So, residents must keep conserving.

“We look at this as an insurance policy, or as increased security in case the drought continues,” explained Max Gomberg, SWRCB climate and conservation manager.

Indeed, Gomberg emphasized the importance of water conservation. From June through December, Californians saved 25.5 percent, nearly 1.1 million acre-feet of water or 91 percent of the governor’s goal of 1.2 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is the amount of water consumed by a family of five in one year. The savings equals the amount of water used by 5.4 million Californians in a year, enough to fill the Folsom Reservoir in Northern California, the state board reported.

Although the December savings as compared with December 2013 dropped to 18.3 percent from 20.3 percent saved in November, the fact that the state keeps saving even during a rainy winter when outdoor watering decreases represents a successful formula worth continuing into the fall, he said.

“The message has held. Folks have really stepped up to do extraordinary stuff,” said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state board. “But we are just at halftime in this early season. Things could change.”

Marcus joked about the fact that El Niño-fueled storms have showed up more often in Northern California than in the southern part of the state. Many of the storms have been deflected north by a high-pressure system hanging over Southern California. “I think (Bill) Patzert should name that Blob,” she joked.

Patzert, a climatologist studying droughts and El Niño for decades, had labeled the current El Niño pattern in the central Pacific Ocean as the “Godzilla El Niño,” predicting above-average precipitation, winds and even flooding this winter.

“I’m going to name it the Felicia Blob,” Patzert said during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, predicting the high pressure will weaken, sending more wet storms into Southern California.

Patzert said El Niño-fueled storms in January delivered rainfall 150 percent of normal in San Francisco and 200 percent of normal in Fresno. Even in Los Angeles, January rainfall reached 3.71 inches, 102 percent of normal for this time of year, he said.

“We are having the best winter we’ve had in the past five years,” Patzert said. But he cautioned it will take more than one year of storms to return reservoirs and groundwater basins to pre-drought levels.

During the board’s seven-hour meeting in which it heard from dozens of water agencies mostly complaining about the new drought regulations, its sister agency, the state Department of Water Resources, conducted the year’s second snow survey and found snow water equivalents of 25.4 inches, 130 percent of the February average at the Phillips site in the Sierra Nevada. Both the depth of the snow and the content of the water — key characteristics of what will become one-third of the state’s water supply in spring and summer — were the highest recorded in 11 years, the DWR reported.

“It is very encouraging to have a snowpack, but water deficits remain,” said Kathy Frevert, SWRCB senior environmental scientist. Frevert said seven of the 10 major state reservoirs are less than half full. Shasta is at 52 percent of capacity and Oroville is 44 percent, she said.

However, recent rains are making a big dent in what has been called the most severe drought in 100 years in California. Water storage at Folsom Reservoir increased by 70,000 acre feet in one day on Jan. 29, said Les Grober, assistant deputy director for the Division of Water Rights at the state board. That reservoir is 1 percent above its historical average, he said.

An extension of the May 1 plan takes effect Feb. 13, the date the plan expires. The new regulations will continue Gov. Jerry Brown’s goal of 25 percent water conservation but provides relief for cities that can show they’ve added residents or commerce, are in a hotter climate zone or have supplemented potable water with recycled or desalinated supplies.

If enough cities qualify for adjustments, it could result in a decrease of water conservation below the 25 percent mandated by the governor, said Eric Oppenheimer, the state water board’s chief deputy director.

Under the current regulation, cities, counties and water companies responsible for delivering urban supplies were given conservation targets of 4 percent to 36 percent based on previous water use. If an agency fails to meet accumulated savings targets by the end of February, it could be fined by the state board.

So far, Redlands, Indio, Coachella Valley Water District and Beverly Hills each received fines from the state for $61,000 in October. Only Beverly Hills has paid the fine. Redlands last month asked for a hearing.

Some urban water agencies may see conservation standards drop by as little as 2 percent and as much as 8 percent if they ask for relief and receive adjustments.

For example, agencies can shave 2 percent to 4 percent off their targets if they can prove they serve a warmer or drier climate. This would mostly apply to the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley water agencies. Also, a reduction could be granted if a supplier could show a substantial increase in commercial and residential users since 2013.

Agencies that added desalinated water or “drought-resilient water supplies” could get a target reduction. Agencies using recycled water to replenish the groundwater could see reduced targets between 4 percent and 8 percent; however, using recycled water for landscape irrigation would not qualify for a reduction under the new regulation.

The largest reduction an agency can realize is 8 percent.

For example, the city of Long Beach will realize a reduction in its conservation target, from 16 percent to 12 percent, according to the draft extension. Very few cities in Southern California are receiving a drop, although they can apply for adjustments through March 1. In Seal Beach, its conservation target will increase from 8 percent to 12 percent.

Also in the new regulation is language that allows local agencies to penalize homeowners associations for impeding homeowners from reducing or eliminating outdoor watering during a declared drought emergency.

The state board will revisit the regulation on May 1, after the spring assessment of snowpack and reservoir levels, Gomberg said.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment, public health and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He has two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.

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